"That Was Him All Over..." Rakhat's Grandfather

My grandfather was born in Issykkul, Kyrgyzstan in 1930 in the family of mother and two sons. He was the youngest one. His father died when he was only 5 years old and he didn’t even remember him. When he was studying at school, his mother told him to leave the school so that he and his brother could help her to raise up the family. Nevertheless, he didn’t listen to her and, finally, made the decision to study, while his brother dropped out of school at the age of 11.

Then WWII broke out, and it wasn’t that easy to study and work at the same time. I never stop admiring Soviet people who stood up for the life of the whole country, fighting against fascist invaders as well as people serving on the home front. Everybody starting from children to old people was involved in this war, because they were all part of one great country.

He was only 11 when the war started. He and his brother used to smoke a lot in order to fill in their stomachs with something, because there was almost nothing to eat, except water and a little piece of bread for the whole family. Despite the difficulties, he continued to study so that in the future he could earn a living for his family. No matter how hard it was, he always believed in a better life.

The war ended. He started to write poems about everything he was concerned about when he had a free time. Soon he successfully graduated school and then moved to Frunze (now Bishkek), the capital of Kyrgyzstan, leaving his mom and brother, but being on the way of his dream. There he entered Medical Institute to become a doctor. Actually, he could spoke only Kyrgyz language, while the main language was Russian. In fact, he had to learn absolutely new language!

Many years passed, now his life was much better than it was. He became a Candidate of Medical sciences, built a maternity home in Naryn region, Kyrgyzstan, and other things that I just can’t put them all together here. Later, he met his future wife and they got 5 wonderful children: 4 daughters and 1 son, which is my father.

Till the end of his life my grandpa was trying to teach us to be honest, generous to people, he didn’t like selfishness. He was very committed to the Kyrgyz people, so just and strong with spirit, their culture and traditions, which were one of his favorite themes in poems. Unity, prowess, aspiration to the freedom and justice were the things he admired the most in Kyrgyz and soviet people.

He died this spring at the age of 77 years. We were planning to celebrate his eighteth anniversary together with our big and friendly family, but unfortunately we lost our lovely grandfather. At the end of his life he had 5 children, 11 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren. We all loved him not only as a father & grandfather, but he was our teacher of life, the person we all wanted to be like. He decided to leave this world so unexpectedly, not disturbing anyone. And that was him all over. We all will remember him as the greatest person we have ever seen. And I’m very proud to be a granddaughter of such a wonderful grandfather.